Marin’s traffic mess explored on IJ Forums talk show

When it comes to Marin’s growing traffic snarl — is a solution even possible?

That’s the question addressed in the newest installment of IJ Forums, the Independent Journal’s public affairs talk show.

Host Dick Spotswood is joined by Dianne Steinhauser, executive director of the Transportation Authority of Marin, who describes the traffic mess about which Marin motorists are all too familiar.

He’s also joined by Linda Jackson, a board member of Sustainable San Rafael and a former TAM transportation planner who now works as a planning consultant; and Richard Hall of San Rafael, a blogger (planningforreality.org) and community activist critical of transportation planning decisions.

“There is absolute truth that suburban design will create a community that the traffic will drive ... residents crazy,” Jackson says. “It’s been studied across the country and you see that place after place — when you build your homes here, your apartments here and your jobs here and your retail here, the only way you can get around to get that loaf of bread is to get in your car and drive there.

“The other situation that we have in Marin specifically, and in the Bay Area, is that we have a booming economy. So we’ve added in the last four years 7,000 jobs (in Marin). How many housing units have we built for those people who are working at those jobs? Four hundred and fifty-five. So there’s a very big discrepancy between the people who can live here and the people who can work here and how they get here.”

Jackson advocates solutions such as the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit train, due to start service later this year, as well as transportation alternatives and encouraging a mix of housing and commercial development so that people can easily walk or bicycle for their needs.

But Hall, who says self-driving cars will help ease traffic in the not too distant future, is skeptical of public transit and transit-oriented development.

“Transit use has been in decline in Marin since 1990,” he says. “The U.S. Census has proven that fact. And yet we insist on funding these massively expensive alternatives such as the train. I think it’s anything from $529 million in costs spent to $1.4 billion in costs (including bond payments). It’s all fine and well to say this is a great solution, but when you look at the impact... .”

He cited Portland, Oregon, as an example of “the kind of city that Linda is talking about, where housing is built, where transportation is built, and it’s presumed to be the solution.

“Well, just in 2015, TomTom, the GPS provider, did a survey and guess what? They found that Portland, which is the 28th largest city in the U.S. by population, has the eighth worst traffic congestion — it’s the same as Chicago and Washington, D.C., despite over a decade or more of this kind of solution.”

To view the 30-minute program, visit marinij.com/topic/ij-forums or tune in to Comcast Channel 26 or AT&T U-verse Channel 99: 7:30 p.m. July 11; 5:30 p.m. July 16; 7:30 p.m., July 25 and 5:30 p.m. July 30.